PHARMACOLOGY
Academic year and teacher
If you can't find the course description that you're looking for in the above list,
please see the following instructions >>
- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- FABRIZIO VINCENZI
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- BIO/14
Training objectives
- The course aims to provide the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic basis for understanding the action of drugs. The student will understand the variables that affect both the movement of drugs within the organism and their mechanism of action at the molecular and cellular level. Particular attention will be paid to biotechnological drugs.
The following knowledge will be acquired:
- the principles governing pharmacokinetics;
- the pharmacokinetic factors determining drug posology;
- the main drug targets, whose modulation represents the rationale for drug therapy;
- methodology for drug development;
- drug toxicity;
- the different classes of drugs;
The skills that will be acquired consist of understanding the characteristics of drugs, their development, and their use in different pathological conditions. A further objective of the course will be to make students understand the differences in efficacy and safety of drugs according to gender. Prerequisites
- A good knowledge of biochemistry, molecular biology, anatomy and physiology is recommended.
Course programme
- The course includes 48 hours of lectures on the following topics:
Pharmacokinetics
- Absorption of drugs
- Distribution of drugs
- Metabolism (biotransformation) of drugs
- Elimination of drugs
- Routes of drug administration
- Elements of clinical pharmacokinetics
Pharmacodynamics
- The main molecular targets of pharmacological action: receptors, voltage-gated ion channels, transporters, enzymes
- Drug-receptor interaction
- Signal transduction pathway
Drug development
- Preclinical and clinical drug development
Evaluation of toxicity: toxicological protocols
- Acute toxicity
- Genotoxicity: mutagenesis
- Short- and long-term toxicity
- Developmental toxicity: teratogenesis
- Carcinogenesis
Special Pharmacology
- Pharmacology of inflammation
- Pharmacology of the autonomic nervous system
- Pharmacology of the central nervous system
- Pharmacology of the cardiovascular system
- Pharmacology of the endocrine system
- Chemotherapy
The main gender differences in pharmacology in the context of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Didactic methods
- 48 hours of lectures on all the topics of the course using Power Point slides.
Learning assessment procedures
- The purpose of the exam is to verify the level of achievement of the previously indicated training objectives. In particular, the test will contain a series of questions aimed at ascertaining the level of knowledge reached by the student on the concepts of general pharmacology, drug testing, drug toxicity, and individual classes of drugs.
The exam is structured in a written test consisting of 31 multiple-choice questions (for each question 4 possible answers, only one correct). Each correct answer will be assigned 1 point, each wrong or not answered 0 points. The minimum score to pass the exam is 18. Reference texts
- Lecture slides provided by the teachers.
Specific topics can be deepened in the following texts:
Clementi, Fumagalli. Farmacologia Generale e Molecolare (Ed. Edra)
Whalen. Le basi della Farmacologia (Ed. Zanichelli)
Galli, Corsini, Marinovich. Tossicologia (Ed. Piccin)
